Judge to rule on dismissal of lawsuit over Aurora police files given to prisoner

A federal judge is supposed to decide later this month whether Aurora's former records manager can be held legally responsible for her role in the release of police personnel files to an Illinois prisoner.

In July, seven current and former officers and their families sued the city of Aurora and its former records manager, Jo Ann Osberg, in U.S. District Court for mailing largely unredacted personnel files in October 2015 to an inmate at Menard Correctional Center.

The officers and their families worry the inmate may have shared personal information about them with his gang associates, according to their complaint. They're demanding a jury trial and seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

The city admitted in court documents that in late 2016, officers were told their information, including home addresses, family members and Social Security and phone numbers, had been given to at least one incarcerated felon associated with the upper levels of a "particularly violent" street gang.

In September, the city and Osberg filed motions to dismiss all five counts of the complaint, arguing the officers' remedy, "if any," lies in state, not federal, court.

The complaint contains two counts alleging federal constitutional privacy violations — one focusing on the city and the other asserting Osberg's individual liability — and three counts alleging violations of Illinois law. The defendants say the state and federal court claims should be dismissed.

A hearing is scheduled Feb. 20 for a ruling on the dismissal motions and other issues concerning the case. The hearing had been set for Thursday, but the judge postponed it due to a scheduling conflict.

In court filings, attorneys for the officers have said government officials can be held responsible for creating a danger in situations like theirs. Lawyers for Osberg and the city have disagreed, stating in a joint filing that Osberg is shielded from civil liability because the constitutional rights invoked in the case aren't established at the "level of particularity" needed to hold her responsible.

The personnel files of six of the officers were released in response to the same Freedom of Information Act request, according to court documents: John Munn, Darrell Moore, Marco Gomez, Armando Montemayor, Arturo Montemayor and Leonard Casamassimo.

A March 2017 audit of the city's FOIA response procedures revealed other unredacted personnel files disclosed to at least one other felon, including those of the seventh officer involved in the lawsuit, Michael Nilles, according to court documents. He is retired, according to the city.

Jesse Alvarez, an inmate at Menard, asked in a handwritten, typo-laden records request for information on officers who worked his case, saying he was pursuing a type of appeal called a post-conviction relief and doing an investigation on all officers, detectives, prosecutors and judges involved. Convicted of attempted murder, Alvarez was sentenced in 2014 to 88 years in prison for shooting and trying to kill a rival street gang member.

The city cited something a character said on page 69 of "Camino Island."

"Elaine was right — nothing is really private these days with the internet and social media...

The city maintains it did not put the officers and their families in state-created danger and refutes many other claims in the lawsuit, including that it took no timely or effective action to remedy harm.

Information available online, and whether that affects individual privacy rights, has been a focal point of proceedings, with lawyers for the city arguing the Constitution grants no right to privacy for the types of information released to the prisoner.